Oil, gas firms give 4bn/- to vocational training

 
DAILY NEWS Reporter in Mwanza

OIL and gas companies under the consortium of Tanzania Liquefied Natural Gas Plant Project (TLNG) have donated 1.9m US dollars (about 4bn/-) to beef up employment opportunities for the youth through vocational training in natural gas in the twin southern regions of Mtwara and Lindi. TLNG is composed of five partners--BG/Shell Group, ExxonMobil, Ophir Energy, Pavilion Energy and Statoil.

The assistance is to be used to implement Phase II of the Enhancing Employability through Vocational Training (EEVT) project, an ambitious scheme implemented by the Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA), Voluntary Services Oversees (VSO) and GIZ through its Skills for Oil and Gas Africa (SOGA) initiative.

The EEVT project aims at improving the employability of young men and women in Mtwara and Lindi regions with a focus on the growing demand for skilled labour in the extractive industries--mining and natural gas and related services.

Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Eng Stella Manyanya, officially launched project’s second phase at an event held at VETA Mtwara yesterday.

Speaking at the project’s launch, a representative of the TLNG Plant Project, Kate Sullam, said that the commitment to extend further support came after realising remarkable achievements during the first phase.

Phase one of the programme was implemented between 2012 and 215 by VETA in collaboration with VSO. Minister Manyanya commended partners for supporting skills development and urged more companies to lend a helping hand. She urged Mtwara and Lindi residents to take an active part in vocational training in order to benefit from emerging job opportunites in the two regions.

“Vocational training has been a stimulant of sustainable development in many countries. Many developed countries made emphasis towards vocational training. Japan, for instance, is the country that hasn’t much natural resources, but invested in human resources through training, something that made it become the second largest economy in the world,” she said.

VETA Acting Director General Geoffrey Sabuni said that the EEVT project was one of the outstanding projects which contributed to achieving the organisation’s goals 1 and 2 focusing on improved equitable access to vocational training education and improved employability of VETA graduates respectively in a special way through the government’s spirit of involving all relevant partners.

In her presentation on the project, VETA Director of Vocational Education and Training, Leah Dotto, said that phase one of the project benefited 477 youth (103 girls and 374 boys) over and above the initial 280 target of the project.

She mentioned other notable achievements of the project as 51 per cent of graduates got employment within six months of their graduation and 93 per cent were awarded internationally recognised certificates in vocational training after they passed the UK’s City and Guilds Institute, examinations.

She said the first phase of the project involved six trades of welding and fabrication, carpentry and joinery, plumbing and pipe fitting, electrical installation and maintenance, food preparations and motor vehicle mechanics.

The second phase project will add scaffolding and rigging, industrial painting and heavy duty equipment operation on top of the phase one trade.